Exploring the teaching of values in Soka Kindergarten: A case study / Cheong Pooi San

Cheong , Pooi San (2020) Exploring the teaching of values in Soka Kindergarten: A case study / Cheong Pooi San. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

The Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) has put so much attention into increasing the quality of preschool values education. However, when it comes to the teaching and implementation of values education in preschool, there are gaps existing between the aspiration and implementation in the preschool in our current system. The purpose of this study to explore preschool teachers’ teaching of values education in a Soka Preschool. This study uses case study research design to discover strategies of teaching values education used by preschool teachers in Soka Preschool. This study also aims to understand how preschool teachers in Soka Preschool are motivated and trained to teach values education effectively to young children. Data was collected for descriptive analysis through the researcher’s observation, interviews, and documents review. Seven participants from Soka Preschool were involved in this study. Participants revealed that values education in Soka Preschool is not being taught in a specific subject but integrating values into the preschool curriculum and classroom activities regardless of what subjects they taught. Majority of the participants also revealed similar teaching strategy of integration of values education into their teaching such as circle time, role-play, storytelling, teamwork activity, class discussion, class leader of the day, exchange programme, dialogue, real-life situation and wall decoration. In addition, this study revealed that preschool management plays an important role in enhancing the teaching of values education. The participants expressed that they increase motivation of teaching values education through strong collaboration between teachers and the preschool management. Observational analysis showed that the all the participants worked in a very positive and value-driven environment and were implementing the teaching of values education diligently. The practice of dialogue between teachers, children and parents that was adopted by iv participants sustained the teaching of values education in Soka Preschool as well. The results illustrated that weekly training by the preschool management, teachers’ exchange programmes and the promotion of teacher’s self-study helped increase and enhanced the participant’s professionalism of teaching values education. Therefore, this research suggests that preschool management needs to promote the integration of values education into preschool curriculum in order to provide quality teaching of values education to young children in the preschool. The role of preschool management is crucial in stimulating and motivating preschool teachers to enhance the teaching of values education effectively through creating a positive working environment in the preschool.

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